14th Scripps National Spelling Bee

14th National Spelling Bee
Date	May 31, 1938
Location	National Museum in Washington, D.C.
Winner	Marian Richardson
Age	12
Residence	Floyd County, Indiana
Sponsor	The Louisville Times
Sponsor location	Louisville, Kentucky
Winning word	sanitarium
No. of contestants	22
Pronouncer	Harold F. Harding and George F. Hussey
Preceded by	13th Scripps National Spelling Bee
Followed by	15th Scripps National Spelling Bee

The 14th National Spelling Bee was held at the National Museum in Washington, D.C., on May 31, 1938. Scripps-Howard would not sponsor the Bee until 1941.

The winner was 12-year-old Marian Richardson, who attended a one-room schoolhouse in Floyd County, Indiana, correctly spelling the word sanitarium. Jean Pierce of Kenmore, New York placed second after failing to correctly spell pronunciation.

Winner Marian Richardson, later Byrnes, dedicated her life to advocacy. As a college student, she organized one of Indiana University's first NAACP chapters, later becoming a Chicago teacher, a mother of four, and a fierce environmental hero. In 1979, she successfully rallied her neighbors to block a transit facility from destroying the prairie behind her Chicago home. She spent decades leading environmental task forces, stopping a proposed airport, and shuttering a hazardous waste incinerator. She died on May 20, 2010.